What is bean-to-bar chocolate?

Or how did we choose the chocolate of amara?

I recently told you that we wanted to create a healthy bar that is different from anything else and one you want to eat again and again… So we created amara – raw bar of dried fruit, hazelnuts and cocoa butter covered with real chocolate.

But what does real chocolate mean? Is there a precise definition and a traditional speciality guaranteed of this real chocolate that just makes you melt, makes you addicted, but you don’t mind this addiction at all?

Unfortunately, there is no traditional speciality guaranteed, there are countless products labeled CHOCOLATE. In fact, there are also those that are just a cocoa product (something like the term dairy product) and they contain any number of emulsifiers, lecithins, palm and other oils.

In the beginning, we did not know much about chocolate and we thought there were white, milk and dark chocolate, and that’s it. But when we had to turn to a specific chocolate maker for amara’s chocolate, it became fun – chocolate with 53%, 66% , 75,346% and so on cocoa content, chocolate in the form of calletes, blocks, lumps J, chocolate with sugar, agave, stevia, monodextrose, chocolate with soy lecithin, sunflower lecithin, E3564722.

We had several meetings with major chocolate suppliers, we consulted with two chocolatiers. At one point, we were totally confused with all the information, offers and advice.

Then we just decided to take things in our own hands and get back to the original idea of our products – few ingredients, organic products and clear origin. And so we started to review all the chocolates that are available on the European market and read their labels. What I advise everyone to do in their daily life is simply read labels and content (you will be surprised at how many supposedly healthy products do not contain many healthy ingredients).

Dark chocolate should contain nothing more than cocoa mass, cocoa butter and unrefined cane sugar or another healthier sweetener. Of course, dark chocolate with almonds should also contain almonds. Bourbon vanilla is also never superfluous.

After a long Internet search, we found it in Austria – our dark chocolate has precisely these three ingredients + 0.03 g/100 g of salt and nothing more.

What is more, it is organic and fair trade certified and is produced using bean-to-bar technology. Yes, these are very complex words, 1 or 2 years ago I did not know them as well. In short, this chocolate not only met our requirements, it even exceeded them. We were indescribably happy, and so far this is one of the best choices we have made.

Now, let me explain the terminology. Did you know that 40% of cocoa is produced in West Africa, where it is customary to use child labor? Fair trade is an organization that monitors working conditions provided by producers and, on the other hand, imposes minimum purchase prices on traders so as to ensure fair income for farmers in poorer countries.

In addition to cocoa beans, the unrefined cane sugar in the chocolate is also fair trade certified.

About bean-to-bar technology – this is a process through which the chocolate maker produces chocolate bars directly from cocoa beans, that is, all the actions necessary for the conversion of cocoa beans into chocolate are carried out in the manufacturer’s production cycle:

Since the producer of amara’s dark chocolate does not use soybean or any other lecithin, its production takes 2-3 days, instead of 2-3 hours, as is the case with others. But in this way they develop all the aromatic and flavor characteristics of cocoa beans and yes, the result is unique.

From here on, I can tell you endlessly about the combination of dark chocolate and the sweet and sour cherry base of amara Cherry & Chocolate or about the composition of dark chocolate, cherry and rosehip in amara Rosehip & Chocolate. But I will let you try them and appreciate them yourself.

If you think more people should learn about our work and our love for the products we create, please share. Thank you with all my heart!